Driver's High

Moderator

Hey there, I'm 49, welcome to my RMT =) I've been using this team for quite some time now (late October iirc), and while it has served me well in the past, I feel as though it's age is beginning to show, with many of my more unorthodox sets losing surprise value and certain threats that were before uncommon (Druddigon makes for a prime example) rising in popularity, and I suppose now is as good a time as any to retire it and get some advice on it for future endeavors. This team has been one of my go-to teams for quite some time, and for what it's worth it has peaked a plethora of my stupid alts at the upper reaches of the leaderboard in it's prime. The team itself is a bulky offense team, utilizing reasonable defensive synergy and natural bulk to remain sound while still hitting hard and batting offensive threats that slip through the cracks down with strong priority attacks, ideally paving the way for a late-game Klinklang sweep. The team itself utilizes some more obscure sets and even Pokemon, running Kangaskan, Piloswine, and Amoonguss (the latter of whom was NU at the time, though it is still rather uncommon in RU nowadays) to maintain a degree of surprise value and keep players guessing. I decided to name this team after the song Driver's High because A. L'Arc~en~Ciel is awesome, B. GTO is awesome, and C. There is no third reason :]

Though Piloswine has recently been receiving a little more appreciation from the RU community, I really don't think it get the props it deserves most of the time. Piloswine is a really solid Pokemon, taking all kinds of hits while retaining good offensive presence. That being said, it finds plenty of opportunities to set up Stealth Rock and whatever else needs to be done. Ground / Ice typing is pretty chill, hitting basically the entire tier for neutral or better damage and dealing some solid damage off a solid 100 Base Attack. Generally I like to pack a Ground-type on offensively paced teams to deter Volt Switch attempts, as even if I never switch Piloswine I can threaten the possibility to ruining offensive momentum for the opponent. Ice Shard is a really cool priority move to pack, allowing it to check Pokemon that might otherwise prove troublesome, such as Sceptile. I run Icicle Spear over Icicle Crash since it improves Piloswine's match-up against Substitute users such as Rotom, and statistically speaking it deals similar damage anyway.

Klinklang has been one of my favourite sweepers in RU for quite some time now. It's nice bulk and mono-Steel typing give it a ton of opportunities to set up, and most offensive teams get smashed by it no problem after a boost (provided Gear Grind hits occasionally ;-; ), making it a pretty flexible sweeper despite it's awful physical movepool. With FWG cores being prominent in most offensive teams, Klinklang gets a ton of "free" wins, being able to set up on Kabutops, select Grass-types, and more, and being able to plow through everything pretty easily, as most common Fire-types are worn down really easily. Moreover, its natural bulk and typing makes it incredibly resilient to priority, only being susceptible to the highly uncommon Mach Punch, and by the time Klinklang has been set up they shouldn't be in the picture anywho (also most of them are bad !_!). I've never really liked Return as a coverage move for Klinklang, especially when Wild Charge is so useful for hitting Pokemon such as Moltres, Qwilfish, Poliwrath, and more and being able to take them more easily out after a little prior damage. Plus, the team itself handles Electric-types just fine, especially considering their general lack of recovery options. I decided to invest the extra 12 EVs in HP for the Lefties # because there's no reason not to?

Specs Slowking is just too ridiculously fun to use, seriously. Slowking finds an assortment of opportunities to switch, and from there it can almost always net a KO, with the exception of course being if the opponent has a Slowking of him/herself. Slowking has always been a great Pokemon in RU, being incredibly versatile and self-sufficient due to natural bulk, Regenerator, and really nice movepool, all of which lend itself to being an excellent Choice Specs user. It can switch in and out of a variety of threats indefinitely, taking advantage of the free turns that it finds to smash stuff. This, alongside Amoonguss, gives my team a moderately effectual and self-sustaining defensive backbone for an assortment of Pokemon while maintaining solid offensive presence. What might be the best part of this set is that for some reason nobody expects Slowking to hit as hard as it does, only later finding out that Grass-types like Sceptile take upwards of 40% from a Surf, not even mentioning Psyshock or Fire Blast. Having found a Grass-type attack somewhat exclusive to opposing Slowking in use, I decided to opt out for Trick to be able to cripple opposing walls while reducing prediction issues, helping in match-ups with balanced teams. The EV spread minimizes hazard damage and speed creeps opposing Slowking a bit to be safe.

Amoonguss :] I've been enjoying this set for a while now and recently decided to vie for it's placement on-site for the reason that honestly I've found it to be its best set. The defensive set, while certainly decent, leaves way too many chances for common and threatening Pokemon, such as Moltres, Durant, Escavalier, Druddigon, and more, to come in almost for free post-Spore, and generally speaking the added bulk coming from investing heavily in defenses is rather superfluous unless you play incredibly badly recklessly with it. That being said, offensive Amoonguss leaves much fewer opportunities, dealing big damage to almost all of the aforementioned threats
(Esca still sucks though :[ ), preventing it from becoming set-up bait. I can't really take credit for this set (NU people, not sure who exactly, beat me to it), but I can say that's it a ton of fun to use, and a highly effectual pivot for this team. The EV spread minimizes LO recoil, outpaces most other Pokemon in its Speed tier, and grants it enough bulk to match up somewhat better with SD Gallade (specifically never being OHKOed by a +2 Zen Headbutt).

One could probably say that I'm a fan of Kangaskan as a Pokemon. I've been using Kangaskan in RU for quite some time now, and it's one of the better offensive "utilities" I've had the chance to work with. For one, the combination of a strong Fake Out+Sucker Punch is greater for picking off frail, fast threats that otherwise might become problematic and has saved me a ton of games. What's more, access to Fake Out gives me an easy out against lead Smeargle, allowing me to completely shut it down no questions asked. As a whole, Kangaskan is a pretty nice example of self-sufficiency, both offensively and defensively Scrappy is a great ability to have as a whole, allowing Kanga to smash Ghost-types without having to actually have to resort to coverage moves, making donking everything with Return much more simple. What's more, Kanga is by no means frail, and even without investment it can take half-assed attacks admirably, being able to heal off damage and recoil to an extent with Drain Punch. I run Adamant because Jolly Kangaskan is weak and the extra Speed never matters unless you're trying to speed tie Moltres. All in all, Kangaskan is a really cool 'mon, and despite middling immediate power it's still really good :<

Rotom is best described as the glue of this team, offering my team a reasonably powerful revenge-killer capable of checking the Pokemon that can't be handled by the remainder of the team. It's unique typing, as well as Levitate is very useful, granting my team some key resistances / immunities to Flying-, Ground-, and Normal-type attacks, allowing it to pivot well into a variety of annoying attacks with minimal risk while being able to Volt Switch out to maintain momentum. Having access to Trick is just a plus, allowing it to cripple incoming walls (fuk Steelix '~'), or even offensive Pokemon such as Escavalier and Nidoqueen, compromising their roles significantly. I've played around with the last moveslot for a while, running everything from HP Ground to Will-O-Wisp, but in the long run Thunderbolt proved the most useful overall, especially in the late-game.

While this is by no means some sort of "defining" team of any kind, it does prove that even in a tier filled with such well-defined standards there is always room for using new and different ideas, which is part of the reason RU is so much fun =) All in all, this team has been a ton of fun to play with, and a great break from the usual, lazily built team(s) I use to combat the powerful showdown RU ladder. While for the most part I'm retiring this team, any sort of advice would be awesome for me for future teams!

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Moderator

Hi col49. This is obviously a very solid team, and I really like the use of several underrated and rare pokemon.

There are however a few weaknesses. The biggest weakness I can see is is too the bug's-namely Durant and Escavalier. Both can come in quite easily on amoonguss after somethin ahs been slept, and decimate everything with their powerful moves. Durant, you have a check to in the form of Rotom, but Escavalier is a much more pressing issue as it can come in on Amoonguss and slowking many more times and then take out one of your mons unless megahorn misses.

Therefore, I recommend running Qwilfish or Poliwrath over Kangaskan. I don't really see what Kangaskan is doing for your team, as the majority of fast threats are dealt with by either Amoonguss(sceptile, galvantula etc.)or slowking. Rotom does a nice job of dealing with flying types as well, such as Swellow, and Piloswine also has Ice Shard.

Either Qwilfish or Poliwrath helps your team a lot against multiple threats. Both help to deal with powerful physical attackers such as Crawdaunt, Absol, Kabutops and Escavalier and Durant very nicely. Qwilfish also carries Spikes to help your rotom, as well as weaken pretty much all of Klinklang's counters. Poliwrath on the other hand has the ability to counter Aggron and Rhydon much more reliably, as well as Crawdaunt thanks to it's secondary typing of fighting. It's your choice though.

Here are the sets for Poliwrath and Qwilfish:

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Moderator

Thanks for the rate Silvershadow! You took the words out of my mouth with the Esca / Durant weakness, they really tough to work (though Durant less so since it's pitiful Special bulk means even Amoonguss' HP Ground is doing upwards of 60%). While I do agree that Kangaskan is probably the most replaceable (even if it is one of my favorite 'mons ;-;), it still is my primary and best response to Smeargle, who otherwise is pretty much guaranteed a safe Spore and a hazard, if not more :/ However, that being said I really do like the Qwilfish idea, since it offers some really nice resists for the team and some Spikes and TWave support, though if it's all the same I might tinker with a speedier spread so that I can Taunt Smeargle :P Thanks (again) :]